First ever brew day with photos!

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esvoytko

Active Member
Joined
Jul 24, 2012
Messages
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Location
Seattle
Yesterday was my first brew day. I think it went relatively well, although be on the lookout for the ubiquitous "my fermentation is stalled" thread in about 24 hours! I kid, I kid. I brewed an ESB, by the way.

brew1.jpg

It's totally normal to organize your ingredients like this, right? Right.

brew2w.jpg

Stirring the malt into the mash.

brew3t.jpg

Tea towels for impromptu insulation.

brew4c.jpg

Commencing liquor-grist separation.

brew5.jpg

Sparging.

brew6.jpg

Hot break ahoy!

brew7.jpg

One gallon batch = kitchen sink ice bath reaches 70 degrees in about 5 minutes.

brew8.jpg

All done!

Comments and questions welcome!
 
Lookin' good!

I lay out my ingredients in a similar way except I label them by the time (minutes left) that they go into the boil. And I brew all grain so the base and crystal would be milled into my grain bucket together.

If you haven't thought about fermentation temperature, I would find a place to control the temperature of the fermentation in the low to mid sixties. A bucket with some water in the bottom and bottles of ice. "swamp cooler"
 
Thanks all!

Re: the pasta insert lautering - yeah, I live in a studio apartment (390 sq ft) so I need my kitchen to look like a kitchen, not a mad-scientist brewhouse! I don't like one-task equipment in there.

Re: fermentation temperature - I live in a basement apartment in Seattle, where the indoor temperature quite seriously never leaves the 60 - 70 degree range, even with no heating or A/C. I may begin to worry about that later as I get more into this. You might also be horrified to know that I took no hydrometer readings and eyeballed my grain and hops measurements! Haha.
 
Update: 20 hours in and I've got steady airlock bubbling. It's alive! It's alive!! <Insert goofy, ecstatic, rookie homebrewer grin>
 
Very nice photo album.

Satisfy my curiosity on one point; are those all the actual ingredients you used in the first pic? Was their more base grain hiding somewhere outside the pic?

I haven't used whole hops before, but that seems that a LOT of hops compared to the amount of grain.
 
esvoytko said:
Thanks all!

Re: the pasta insert lautering - yeah, I live in a studio apartment (390 sq ft) so I need my kitchen to look like a kitchen, not a mad-scientist brewhouse! I don't like one-task equipment in there.

Re: fermentation temperature - I live in a basement apartment in Seattle, where the indoor temperature quite seriously never leaves the 60 - 70 degree range, even with no heating or A/C. I may begin to worry about that later as I get more into this. You might also be horrified to know that I took no hydrometer readings and eyeballed my grain and hops measurements! Haha.

If it tastes good, your recipe was spot on!

And if it doesn't, give it a few more weeks ;-)
 
Yesterday was my first brew day.



Well look at you all organized with everything laid out and labeled. I should follow your lead and do the same.... maybe if I had everything laid out neatly I wouldn't have forgotten the coriander in my last Belgian Wit :D

Congrats on your first brew day..... now it's all about the patience :mug:
 
Re: the ingredients. Good eye! Yes, the photo only shows about half of the total grain I used. There is another pound of base grain in a zip-top bag, but after pouring the first bag into that bowl I got a cloud full of malt dust in my eyes, so I decided to forgo pouring the second bag into the bowl.
 
Love it! It sounds like your fermentation temperature should be under control.

Next up start planing your brew room. Will it be electric or gas? 5 gallons, 10 gallons or even bigger?
 
You might also be horrified to know that I took no hydrometer readings and eyeballed my grain and hops measurements! Haha.


Not horrifed, but rather impressed! Most noobs think like they are building a nuclear reactor, but it's only beer...looks like you are doing great...keep up the nice work!
 
Well done for sure! I just started this year as well. Loving the hobby for sure - Im sure you are already thinking about your next batch!! You will be dreaming of beer soon enough :mug:
 
I am thinking about my next batch indeed! But I want to be patient and make sure this batch turns out okay before getting too backed up with fermenters, bottles, etc.
 
Update: 17 days later, the beer has cleared up quite nicely! Hard to tell from the photo though. Should be bottling later tonight...

fermenter.jpg
 
Wonderful. Sounds like it's time to add a few pieces of equipment to scale things up a bit. Wouldn't it be lovely to have 3 or 5 times as much beer with the same amount of time invested? ;)
 
bigbeergeek said:
Wonderful. Sounds like it's time to add a few pieces of equipment to scale things up a bit. Wouldn't it be lovely to have 3 or 5 times as much beer with the same amount of time invested? ;)

I'll quickly step in here and say that some brewers like small batches for various reasons, so no pressure to step up if you're happy with your current yield!
But yeah, 'beer for time' bigger batches are more economical.
 
That is a great looking pic! Are you sure this is your first brew?!

Also, I love the way you organized your ingredients. Not everyone does (myself included) -- but we should (myself included).
 
I have only done extracts(10+) up to this point and I organize everything also. I can't help it, I HAVE to.

That pic after 17 days looks BEAUTIFUL! You have to let us know how it turns out.

All-grain is in the very near future for me, but I got sidetracked when my dad gave me an upright fridge(future kegerator) which let me use my chest freezer for lager chamber. That distraction has pushed AG back a little, but i think by this weekend or next I will be there. GL TO YA! :)
 
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